Telecoms group Commsworld has established its own pure fibre telecommunications route linking Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The Edinburgh-based company said the new inter-city ‘carrier’ fibre network will offer businesses operating speeds of up to 100Gb/s between two linked data centres.

Commsworld, who typically lease bandwidth on the top of other carrier networks, said the new investment means it can also offer services as a carrier.

The company has procured and lit a 50-mile long dark fibre span linking the recently launched Fortis datacentre in North Lanarkshire and the Pulsant’s datacentre in western Edinburgh.

Ricky Nicol, chief executive of Commsworld: "This is a major and exciting step forward for our business"

Commsworld can now offer customers on its network ultra-high speed network access between the two facilities for real-time mass data replication as well as wholesale access for other communications providers.

The company said it already looking to establish further long-haul dark fibre routes, including a secondary Glasgow-Edinburgh network.

Ricky Nicol, chief executive of Commsworld, said: “This is a major and exciting step forward for our business as it means that an independent Scottish firm is operating this level of infrastructure rather than it being the preserve of the biggest industry names.

“An easy way to think of the inter-city fibre is as the digital equivalent of a major motorway, which is connected at each end and at certain points along the route by regional networks, at exchanges.

“We now have full control over speeds, from the business connection, the local network, to the exchanges and beyond – it means clients with offices between Edinburgh and Glasgow can experience some of the fastest network speeds around.”

Commsworld chief technical officer, Charlie Boisseau, added: “Over two decades ago we witnessed a series of firms such as ntl, Telewest and Atlantic Telecom investing and physically installing massive new duct and fibre networks, but without the ability to drive returns on that technology – leading to eventual collapse and consolidation of the industry.

“This left a gulf, between the handful of large telecoms operators and very small ISPs or resellers of largely BT infrastructure.

“That leaves business customers with a very limited choice – and tied to their pricing structures.

''By procuring long term leases of dark fibre already in the ground and applying our own technologies over that fibre, we have further control over costs and speeds, from the customer connection through the city network and even beyond.

''It’s now possible for a Commsworld customer to receive a connection between these two cities that we can honestly guarantee does not traverse any third-party equipment at the optical level.

“While that may not surprise people who know of our technical capability, it is a mean feat for a provider of our size.”

He added: “The exciting thing is that this is just the start.

“We are already looking to establish further long-haul dark fibre routes, including options to provide a secondary Glasgow-Edinburgh network as we look to become a telecoms operator of real scale.”